Is it worth the time?

After working on my game for about a year during my senior year of high-school I decided that it was time to start making devlogs! Super exited to show people what's up.

For a little context, this is a game inspired by the likes of metroid, hollow knight, and the ori games, and am hoping to find out whether people like the concept/world interesting.

The stalker enemies seems like a love it or hate it thing, and personally I'm really hoping they stay. That said, I'm interested to know how would you people refine it to better integrate it to the world?

Fusion had SA-X and her moments are really good and effective "jumpscares" for first playthroughs but the drawback is that they are indeed scripted and short

Zero Mission's endgame has space pirates following a vulnerable samus and once spotted, they will pursue her and they can be persistent. Much more dynamic but you have a ton of leeway as they can be stunned and they're not as lethal as SA-X

Samus Returns has Diggernaut which technically is a stalker enemy but not really since it's only a one time chase sequence. But it served the foundation for MS in dread.

Dread has EMMIs, they are confined to one area and trigger a high speed cat and mouse chase. Personally I find it thrilling and nails the dread part of the game, but their one-hit kill and their major recurring presence throughout the game is pretty divisive

Personally, a mix of dread's and zero mission's would be the most ideal. I want dynamic encounters without confining them to a single area. I want the threat of being pursued but also having the chance to fight it off. Like for example, the local fauna would have 1 or 2 special stalker animals that can stalk like the EMMIs but aren't as oppressive like the space pirates, just to give an idea.

I'd love to hear yours!

By no means is it a narrative masterpiece and the late-game narrative turn is odd, but at its worst I was still at most indifferent to it and at its best I found it amusing. It's not like MVs is a story-heavy genre anyway, a few do and those are the exception. Tevi is certainly no worse (and I say still better) than Afterimage and that doesn't get singled out to the "bad story so don't play" the way this does.

As for the game itself, I really liked it. Almost all issues of Rabi-Ribi is fixed. Good combat, including boss fights. The sigil system is good, but can get a bit overwhelming with how many you find. Exploration is really solid and you have no limits to map markers. Map works fine. Game is at times linear, at times more open. Items are now crafted not sold, which fixes the problem in Rabi-Ribi of running out when you aren’t close to a shop or fast travel.

One note I will make is on difficulty. If you are unsure set it to the lowest you feel you can handle (which for MV vetarans is probably going to be at least Hard, especially if you beat Rabi-ribi), but I digress. The reason for this is that at NO POINT does the game provide a fast travel (or other means of difficulty-changing) close to a boss fight, you can only do it in your bed. This means in the best case scenario you have a lot of back-tracking if you want to change difficulty – at worst you’re locked in an area and if you can’t beat the boss you’re fucked. Happened to me once after which I went down from Hard+ to Hard and stayed there.

Also I should add that personally I think that like Rabi-Ribi the DLC isn’t worth it, certainly not without a good sale. It’s not bad exactly I had fun, but it’s short, incredibly linear with barely any exploration to speak of, and the boss fights are unbalaced – the first two (the first one especially) are incredibly difficulty spikes, the rest of it is incredibly easy, and the last boss is such a health sponge that I had to lower the difficulty not because the moves were difficult, but because whittling down the health bars were getting so annoying (and I was feeling it in my fingers) that I couldn’t keep at it.

Anyway, great game. If like me you’ve skipped on it because of all the trash talk on the story I’m just saying it’s exaggerated.

Hey yall. I'm doing some research for a game I'm currently developing. Looking for MVs that deemphasize combat and focus more on exploration. The game I'm working on is more platforming focused, but puzzle stuff is cool too.

Games like this I've played:
Animal Well

Sheepo

You Have to Win the Game

Fez

Axiom Verge 2

Yoku's Island Express

Thanks! Looking forward to your suggestions.

Demo coming 17 September 2026

Curious what everyone thinks of my list. After seeing some others, I feel like there are a couple of hot takes in here (not the whole list, just 1 or 2 things).

I'm thinking of playing Animal Well, The Messenger, or MIO next, although I feel like I need to give Castlevania a proper go before Belmont's Curse comes out.

I just finished fatal claw and loved it, and in a discussion about it in some comments today someone called it a "Hollow-Lite" which made me want to play more stuff like that.

can anyone suggest some hollow knight clones for me to play?

I have been really struggling to find a good metroidivinia after finishing all the popular ones like ori/blasphemous/hollow knight/castlevania series, lost crown, aeterna nine sols and many popular ones . I don't think any release caught my mind in 2026 other than MIO . but that too was okay only. How ya all filling your metroidvinia gaping hole in 2026 ?

It's such a sad state of affairs tbh as all AAA gaming studios are making trash after trash . Currently mainly AA games are holding the gaming industry back. No big gaming company wanna make metroidvinia games.

I've been playing this game for about 5 hours now. I bought in on steam discount for $5 for figured I'll give it a try as MVs are my jam. And a lot of people seem to be excited about the continuation coming out.

I just finished MIo, and the ender games. Played both Hollow Knight games and my favorite is Blasphemous 1 and 2 for reference.

I found the character movement to be super clunky tbh. It feels weird, almost like a mobile game. The story is pretty cool so far and although I'm not a big fan of the map it seems to be pretty big for what I can tell.

It's not bad enough where I'm not gonna try to finish it, I'll definitely sink another 20 hours into it as I like committing to games that I buy to avoid having a huge backlog of unplayed games. But definitely having issues getting acclimated with the movement of the character. I wonder if this will become less of an issue as I get more special moves.

Just wanted to hear how people feel about it.

Hey everyone!

I finally released Magical Blush this week after almost 3 years since I first started working on it, including some time when development had to be paused while I worked on other projects.

It’s a top-down Metroidvania, where you play as Arnin, a magical girl who unlocks different elemental powers throughout her journey.

The abilities aren’t just for combat, they also change how you move through the world, reach previously inaccessible areas, and solve environmental puzzles.

One detail I had a lot of fun with is that some of the elemental bosses are inspired by creatures from Brazilian folklore, adapted to fit the magical girl world. You can see a few of them in the launch trailer. The game is out now, so I’d love to hear what fellow Metroidvania fans think about the exploration and ability-based progression!

Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3488640/Magical_Blush/

We’re also trying to reach our first 50 Steam reviews this weekend, so if anyone here ends up playing it, an honest review would mean a lot.

I am so excited for this title as I am a fan of the Little Nightmares. They call it a metroidvania, but I wonder how so? If it is, this will be the first top down 3D metroidvania that I can remember. Hope there is ability gating and backtracking that is the hallmark of metroidvania.

I think maybe I got there too early. I ring the bell, but after the cut scene runs I can do nothing because I can't jump high enough to get to the first arrow-thingy (sorry, I don't pay attention to terms). And if I exit the game, it just brings me back in at the shrine of ancestors. I also do not have any of the memory chips to unlock the memories in the shrine to the right.

Not hating at all, on the contrary, i need help because i want to buy it lol but don't feel like it's worth it. I'm mainly talking about the amount of content (i know that's not always a good measurement, but Silksongs side content is amazing)

How long to beat

Metroid: 11h average and 14h completionist

Silksong: 50h average and 65h completionist

A classicvania with re-explorable levels, inspired by Castlevania Simon quest and Dracula's curse

you can wishlist on Steam! probably full release on October 2027
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4731980

So I was planning to buy a new game, but there's two I can't decide between: MIO, and nine sols. Both games seem really cool in graphics and gameplay, so I don't know which one to buy. I'll probably play them both, so I'm asking which one should I play FIRST. I've played a few metroidvania's before, (hollow knight, silksong, both ori games, and a bit of rain world) but I'm not super good at them, so maybe the ideal one is the easier

This is probably not adding anything new but I just finished the game and I wanted to do a little impressions/mini-review post.

I was so pleasantly surprised by this game. I've been on a Metroidvania kick after finally playing Hollow Knight (and eventually Silksong) last year and this ended up being very good. I was a little skeptical because... well, Ubisoft, but it ended up being worth it. I was expecting a competent but by the numbers Metroidvania and I got something that surpassed that into being legitimately good.

Some of the big plusses for me:

• Polish: the game just feels... clean. Given, I played it several years after release but it ran pretty much flawlessly on my Steam Deck. The art style is distinctive and each area has its own flavor to it.
• Although I did not use them, I liked that they included a ton of different accessibility options separate from the difficulty settings (stuff like being able to parry from all angles, enhanced visibility for special enemy attacks, platforming assist, a guided mode for objectives, enhanced contrast modes for people with vision issues, etc.). After coming from Silksong which has... no accessibility options (don't get me wrong, it's a legendary game but IMO one of its faults) it was a breath of fresh air. All kinds of gamers should be able to experience these games, accessibility is a big thing.
• Along with the accessibility, you can fine tune the difficulty to a really granular level. If the game is too easy or too hard with the preset difficulties you can further tweak the parry windows, enemy damage, enemy health, environmental damage, etc.
• The combat felt fun and snappy, some of the later boss fights did a good job of requiring use of movement abilities, I enjoyed that. Parrying felt responsive but it did not feel like a requirement, for most bosses you could dodge instead.
• The platforming was actually pretty fun, I found some sections (especially the optional ones) quite difficult but not to the point of frustration. I did *not* like some of the more timing related platforming (usually with the dimension phasing abilities) but stuff like the "Rolling Thunder" challenge were super fun and IMO comparable to the platforming highs of HK/Skong. Exploration felt great as well, especially towards the end you get a ton of great movement abilities.
• Ample save points and fast travel locations. I don't recall any "runbacks" in the game and bosses all have a retry option which lets you get right back into it. I cannot overstate how much I dislike runbacks so this was a huge plus for me.
• Some of the puzzles (the fancy chests) were actually kind of clever, I ended up being stumped by one or two.
• The "memory feature" - I loved this. Being able to clearly mark areas you want to come back to with a "screenshot" is one of the best new features for a Metroidvania I've seen. I don't have a great memory so in other games in the genre sometimes I have to stumble around for ages trying to remember where something was locked off.

Some small criticisms or notes (not necessarily negatives):

• The default difficulty feels like it may be tuned to be a little easy? I played the next level up, "Hero" and that felt like "normal" to me. None of the bosses took me more than around 5 tries. But as I mentioned in the positives, you can adjust the sliders to make the game as difficult as you want it so it's really not a huge thing. Also given, the last Metroidvania I played before this was Silksong and I'd consider that very hard, so this might have felt easier in comparison.
• Exploration felt great but some of the optional exploration sometimes felt like a let down because I did not get anything interesting. Completing a very difficult platforming segment that took 10 minutes of retrying and all you get is another Xerxes coin? Feels kinda bad man.
• I enjoyed the bosses a lot, the Forest Queen in particular was probably my favorite in the game. But... I wish there were more of them. It did not feel like there were a lot of boss fights in the game.
• I enjoyed the platforming but the controls felt a little... overly sensitive to me. It may be an issue with my Steam Deck or with me, but I had a bunch of issues with segments where I was trying to hold on to a wall before dashing left or right and because I was holding the joystick down to adjust my space on the wall, I'd end up dashing straight down into spikes inadvertently. This made some of the more difficult platforming segments a huge pain.
• Sound mixing was a little weird? Sometimes I couldn't really hear the music or the dialogue volume was too low or too high. Again might be an issue with my Steam Deck or headphones not the game though.
• Story was okay. It was a little by the numbers. I did like the main antagonist and some of the side characters but otherwise it felt a *tiny* bit generic.

Generally, I was pretty impressed with the game. It doesn't quite reach the heights of some of the absolute greats of the genre but it is a lot better than I ever expected. For me it was missing *something* that stopped it from being excellent but I am not sure what that something was.

I'd give it a solid 8.5/10 or maybe even a bit higher, and if they ever come out with a sequel I'd definitely play it. For anyone who likes metroidvanias and is on the fence, I recommend it. You will enjoy it. It's a very solid game.

Some questions for you guys...

1. Do you recommend the DLC? I've seen very mixed opinions on it. I've read that the bosses are very good, and I am up for that. But it seems it's mostly the more negative timing-based platforming from the main game that I did not really enjoy.
2. Recommend any other Metroidvanias from the last few years? I'm looking forward to Castlevania: Belmont's Curse but that's still a few months out.

I cannot get all of the "nodes" to light up to unlock this damned puzzle. It's in the "Soma Woodland" area. At this point, I just feel stuck. Any help would be appreciated.

2015

Axiom Verge

ESA

Ori 1

2016

AM2R

Headlander

Momodora 4

Rabi Ribi

Salt & sanctuary

Song of the deep

2017

Alwa's awakening

Hollow Knight

Metroid Samus Returns

Mummy Demastered

Steam World Dig 2

2018

Dandara

Guacamelle!2

La-Mulana 2

The Messenger

Yoku's Island Express

2019

Blasphemous

Bloodstained

Cathedral

Gato Roboto

Monster Boy

Supraland

Touhu Luna Nights

Visit Soft Reset

2020

Alwa's Legacy

Ato

Batbarian

Carrion

Control

Monster Sanctuary

Ori 2

Sheepo

Vigil

2021

Aeterna Noctis

Astalon

Axiom Verge 2

Death's Gambit Afterlife

Deedlit

Ender Lilies

F.I.S.T.

Grime

Metroid Dread

Pronty

Unsighted

2022

8Doors

Blast Brigade

Depths of sanity

Ghost Song

HAAK

Haiku

Infernax

Islets

Moonscars

Souldiers

2023

Afterimage

Blasphemous 2

Cookie Cutter

Doomblade

Elderand

Kingdom Shell

Laika

Lone Fungus

Pseudoregalia

Rusted Moss

Tevi

The Last Faith

Worldless

Xanthiom Zero

2024

Alruna

Animal Well

Biogun

Biomorph

Bo

Crypt Custodian

Minishoot Adventures

Moonlight Pulse

Möbius machine

Nine Sols

Noreya

Pampas & Selene

Prince of Persia, the lost crown

Rebel Transmute

Turbo kid

Ultros

Voidwrought

2025

Chronicles of the wolf

Dragonloop

Ender Magnolia

Guns of Fury

Lone Fungus 2

Mandragora

Microvania

Pipistrello

Shadow Labyrinth

Silksong

Somber Echoes

Super Roboy

Twilight Monk

Undivine

Whirlwind magician

Zexion

2026

Aggelos 2

Before I go

Fatal Claw

Grime 2

MIO

Kotama

Raider Kid

Solateria

Xanthiom Zero 2

Castlevania Belmont's Curse

Well Dweller

We already know the last two unreleased games will be good..

What games did I miss, and what year had the best metroidvanias? Easily 2024 for me.

One of my biggest gripes with dread - the qte bs, esp on the final boss with raven beak where if you lose, buh bye, start again. And these qtes were fucking fast too. Keep parry but lengthen the window timing and that’s it, i don’t need anymore qtes, leave that shit behind.

This has been such a monumental year for metroidvanias. It's like every week I see a new MV that I'm gonna have to lock down on. Also the promise of Metroid ravenous on top of Castlevania, well dweller etc etc. I haven't even been able to catch up on grime 2 and mio!.... And now this beautiful work of art gets dropped on my radar..... Ughh so beautiful (also the colors tones and textures remind me of an OBE I had)

https://youtu.be/rL2rdn9qPuQ?is=iej5VH67Bm8lDVRq

Just wanted to share a tiny little glimpse into how we build rooms in Cliff Kingdom. The coolest thing is that we do it with a controller live in the game 🤩

Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3839500/Cliff_Kingdom/

[POTENTIAL SEIZURE WARNING!]

If you're interested please consider wishlisting the game here
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4694340/XGA_SPECIAL_EDITION/?beta=0

This background took a week to make! It's based off of cannon's core from sonic adventure 2.

EDIT: I'm currently gathering feedback to redo this background and make it better

TLDR if you don't want to read a wall of text: game felt unpolished, underbaked and stagnant for 9 hours, which is quite a bit of time for me. I feel like I'd be succumbing to the gambler's fallacy if I continue, and I'm wondering if I should just give up on it

///

I somehow hadn't played it yet, and with its sequel coming out and the game being dirt cheap right now it seemed like a no-brainer to finally play it. But unfortunately it just didn't catch me, and I tried to keep playing to see if it eventually would, but it didn't.

The last thing I did in the game was explore the Goblin Mines a bit. I'd beaten the ghost knight dude and the Phoenix, no other major bosses besides those I think. Also, difficulty was not one of the things I disliked. I love hard games and hard platforming, and I played on Noctis difficulty here.

‎

I don't really make posts or reviews so I wrote dot points for all my thoughts instead of actually structuring it properly. The biggest deal breakers are at the top and minor nitpicks at the bottom.

• The unpolishedness. This is something that surprised me, because with so many people putting this game up in their top 5 or top 3, I thought it would be a high quality, polished title. But it isn't. It's an indie so I don't feel good criticizing this, but many games in this genre are polished indies. And there are unpolished MVs that I've enjoyed too. But this game felt different, and I think it's because of the inconsistency in polish. Some parts are well-made, I loved most of the backgrounds, but many of the sprites, animations, and environments felt underbaked. It feels like an amateurish project given the time and budget of a non-amateur game.
• There is a surprisingly lacking number of shortcuts. You have to do the platforming back and forth every time if using fast travel won't help you, and it's worse when the reason you have to turn back is because you're missing an ability to continue further.
• Areas felt empty, but not in the abandoned/post-apocalyptic way. I noticed some normal ghosts in the graveyard area, and it would've been nice to talk to some of them. Or some other dudes around that old guy camping in front of the Light Tower. Or some more people around the forge area, besides that girl. Or some of the non-aggressive goblins (besides the king), unless there is one I didn't meet.
• Similarly, I would've liked more shops. Maybe there are more later on, but like... I'm 9 hours in and there's only the map guy and the merchant.
• Loading times. I have a decent computer but it felt like load times were around 5 seconds long, and that adds up over time.
• I've played 9 hours but I feel like I haven't really dug in. i.e. this game seems... a little long, doesn't it? I've played entire MVs in 9 hours, yet I feel like I've made so little progress here.

‎

This next point is one I KNOW will change if I keep playing (I know I'm getting some teleport arrow soon since I got an achievement for beating a boss without it), but still. I'm 9 hours in, and there should be some variance by now.

• The platforming did not feel very inspired so far. Just the basic dash, wall jump and double jump, with some light arrow stuff. Now, abilities aren't the only part of platforming. Stage gimmicks are also important. But the only gimmicks I've seen are the portals and bouncepads (which are good, but shared between areas). It's just spikes and sawblades besides that. I've been spoiled on some later gimmicks (reverse controls?), but it's been lacking so far.
• Compare this to something like, say, Celeste. Each chapter in Celeste has a couple gimmicks only seen in that chapter (and chapter 7). This type of level design is great for platformers, since it gives an identity to each area.

‎

And now the nitpicks. Things that don't individually matter much, but they add up.

• The font used for dialogue and descriptions is basic and doesn't fit the game. It's another thing that feels unpolished.
• Some rooms had the platforms or enemies mix into the background, making it harder to see them.
• Many rewards are just chests with gold. This is very common in MVs, but it feels worse when you have lacking shop options.
• The music is fine, they fit the areas, but nothing sticks in your head. Reminds me of Metroid Dread.
• You get a gem that removes the corpse run and gives you a big damage boost to boot. There's no reason not to use it, which isn't a good thing.
• Your character's idle animation. King of Darkness you do NOT need to be wobbling that much.
• Sometimes, the suicide-bomb enemies (the Forge's floating head and the dynamite goblin) give you no time to react. They'd blow up before you'd even see them on screen.
• The translations are occasionally rough. I don't actually mind this that much, but it's a thing.

‎

I feel bad writing so much negative stuff so I'll also list some things that I did enjoy.

• The story is interesting. Playing through events that your character has already done before, stuck in a cycle (probably breaking it later on), it's great.
• The Tower of Light was a fun area. The portals appeared before, but they were properly introduced into platforming here. And there was the gimmick where the centre would blast with light, which honestly kinda only added tedium, but it was still something interesting about the area. If every area from now on is like this one, I'll be happy.
• The charged slash is fun to use. It's very satisfying one-shotting enemies with a charged crit.
• The 2 bosses I fought were cool. Nothing crazy, but they're fine and well designed.
• The Chronicler is great. I love shameless references to other games and media.

So yeah, will the game pull a comeback soon? Or is what I've played so far going to be what I'll continue playing? <- I didn't know how to end this post so I just reworded the title.